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Tag: Statistics

Patsy, a Python package for describing statistical models and building design matrices using "formulas" : a great addition in the ecosystem of Python statistical packages !

The first release a very nice package called Patsy was announced last week by Nathaniel Smith. Quoting Nathaniel's message, Patsy is « a Python package for describing statistical models and building design matrices using "formulas". Patsy's formulas are inspired by and largely compatible with those used in R ».

I should add to this message that Patsy is also King Arthur's assistant in the Monty Python and The Holy Grail film. While I discovered this by chance, I doubt it is a coincidence...

This new module is a great addition to the emerging ecosystem of Python statistical packages which already includes statsmodels and pandas as flagships, the latter being very actively developed. A complete description of Patsy's functionalities is provided on its overview page, but the best description to me is the clearly written quickstart section. Not all modules enjoy such a nice documentation, so let's enjoy !